Ascending & Descending Glory

by Anthony Esolen

Thrones, Dominations, Princedoms, Virtues, Powers," calls out the Father to the assembled angels in Paradise Lost.

No doubt he meant also to summon the other four orders, the seraphim and cherubim, the archangels and the angels. Such were the nine orders denominated by Dionysius and accepted by Christian theologians and poets of the Middle Ages and beyond. And yet, says Thomas Aquinas, angels do not belong to species. In this regard, they are not like men. Each individual angel is his own kind.

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